Wellness Wednesday: Eating Well to Run Well
Meeting nutritional needs of canine athletes
A version of this article was originally published in the October 2024 OVERview/Cynosport 2024 program.
Hardworking dogs, such as those who recently competed at the 2024 Cynosport® Dog Agility World Games Presented by Purina® Pro Plan®, need world-class nutrition to achieve their best performance. Purina Pro Plan Sport Performance 30/20 Formulas provide the nutrition to fuel a sporting dog’s metabolic needs during intense work. Containing 30 percent protein and 20 percent fat, these formulas help dogs recover quickly, so they are ready for multiple agility runs a day.
Champion competitors Sydney Ryan and Roger Ly explain why they choose Purina Pro Plan to fuel their dogs' activities.
Sydney Ryan and Ego
Sydney Ryan, of Portland, Oregon, powers up her 8½-year-old agility champion Border Collie, Ego (IAC IWAC MACH2 ADCH On Target’s Narcissist MXS MXJS TKP RA CGC BN T2B MXF VHM), with Pro Plan Sport Performance 30/20 Chicken & Rice Formula and Pro Plan Sport Performance 30/20 Salmon & Rice Formula. Ego was a star performer at this year's Cynosport, taking top honors (P16") in the Masters Challenge BiathlonSM, Steeplechase®, Grand Prix of Dog Agility® and Strategic Games!
“Ego is at the top of his game,” Sydney said. “He keeps up with his son, who is half his age. Pro Plan helps him maintain muscle and stay in a great weight for competition. Plus, I love being able to find Pro Plan when we’re on the road traveling to events.”
Energy for optimal performance
“Other than hydration, energy is the most critical part of a dog’s diet,” said Purina board-certified veterinary nutritionist Jason Gagne, DVM, DACVIM (Nutrition). “A dog food that has the right levels of energy nutrients — protein, fat and carbohydrate — makes it more likely for a dog to achieve maximum oxygen uptake, or VO2 max. When maximal oxygen uptake combines with maximal fat oxidation, it produces the best performance during hard work.
“The higher the VO2 max, the more intensely a dog can exercise and the longer the dog can maintain a higher running speed. Fatigue is delayed when energy from fat goes to the muscles, thus sparing the liver and muscle glycogen stores, and when the body uses amino acids, or protein, to provide glucose. The longer you can spare glycogen, the better.”
Glycogen, the storage form of glucose in muscles and liver, is needed during intense work. However, it is limited in the body, and its depletion may affect a dog’s performance or capacity to work at an optimal level. When glycogen stores are fully depleted, this leads to exhaustion.
“A diet that is high in protein promotes circulating red blood cells, which have a crucial role in carrying oxygen to the cells, including muscle cells where oxygen is used to burn fat to produce the energy needed by a dog during work,” Dr. Gagne said. “Increased oxygen in muscle cells results in the increased capacity of the muscles to use fat as an energy source."
Fat is an important concentrated source of energy. The gross energy of fat equals 9 kilocalories compared to 4 kilocalories for protein and carbohydrate. The digestibility of fat is generally higher than protein or carbohydrate, and fat is highly palatable and impacts the texture of dog food.
“During recovery, particularly at an agility event where a dog may run multiple times in one day, glycogen stores are replenished via carbohydrates in the diet,” Dr. Gagne said. “Dietary carbohydrates are important because they help maintain glycogen stores, enabling repeated episodes of exercise and work on a long-term basis.”
Roger Ly and Firefly
Agility competitor Roger Ly, of San Jose, California, noticed how quickly his Belgian Tervuren, 6-year-old Firefly (ADCH IWAC Haute Volée’s Can’t Take The Sky From Me), bounced back when he switched to Purina Pro Plan Sport Performance 30/20 Salmon & Rice Formula.
The results of Firefly’s winning reflect his ability to recover and run at the top of his game. Firefly is a two-time Team USA competitor at the International Federation of Cynological Sports World Agility Championship. In 2024, in France, Firefly was on the Silver Medal Small Dog Team, and in 2023, in the U.K., he placed second in the Individual Biathlon and was on the Gold Medal Small Dog Team.
“I was looking for a formula with more fat to help Firefly run hard and recover faster,” Roger said. “He definitely snaps back faster on Pro Plan.”
Understanding energy balance and determining whether your dog receives the nutrition he needs can be as simple as evaluating the dog’s agility performance. The Purina Pro Plan Sport Performance 30/20 Formulas are specifically made to provide the nutrition to fuel a dog’s energy, drive and enthusiasm.